Route Fifty

Air Force runs NATO support network 24-7

Before North Atlantic Treaty Organization pilots began their bombing sorties in Yugoslavia, U.S. Air Force personnel in Europe made some construction sorties of their own at Cervia Air Base, Italy. Technical Sgt. Jeffery Bennett and Staff Sgts. Bert Caouette, Brian Connolly and Jules Volney built an unclassified fiber-optic LAN within 24 hours of arriving at the base, said Maj. Timothy N. Williams, commander of the 48th Expeditionary Communications Flight group at Cervia.

By Bill Murray, GCN
April 26, 1999

Those who spam feds may be worse than nuisances

Are you facing e-mail madness? Have you been getting unwanted electronic mail lately? Does your in-box greet you each day with a collection of unsolicited electronic advertisements for everything from get-rich schemes to porno site pointers? What right do these strangers have to insult your morals or your intelligence at your own desk?

By GCN
April 26, 1999

Treasury installs tool to show both sides of the financial coin

Thanks to its complex financial reporting systems, the federal government reported a $70 billion budget surplus in fiscal 1998, the same year it recorded a $60 billion spending deficit. Believe it or not, both financial statements were accurate, said Steven App, deputy chief financial officer at the Treasury Department. Federal budgeting is based on cash, whereas the government's financial systems use accrual accounting.

By Florence Olsen, GCN
April 26, 1999

SSA will round up stray domains to brand them with common NT

The Social Security Administration, one of the government's largest and most geographically dispersed agencies, wants to rein in its so-called rogue domainsLANs running Microsoft Windows NT that do not conform to the common field office LAN structure. "We have 14 domains out there that we want to consolidate into a single domain," said Ron Cooper, a computing specialist in SSA's Client-Server Division.

By William Jackson, GCN
April 26, 1999

Here's the deal: free equipment in exchange for corporate flesh art

Packet Rat R. Fink Here's the deal: free equipment in exchange for corporate flesh art The Rat recently stumbled across a news item that set his mental wheels spinning. A taco restaurant chain in San Francisco is giving away a lifetime of free lunches to customers who get tattooed with the restaurant's logo.

By GCN
April 26, 1999

Internet gives documents a new dimension

It is such a natural that, under Al Gore's National Performance Review and, later, Access America initiative, the Net became more than popular; it became policy. The government has decided to use the Internet as its preferred distribution channel. Beyond the Internet, agencies have widely adopted Internet technical standards as their own.

By GCN
April 26, 1999

Pacific Fleet takes a Y2K test

After year 2000 readiness tests of several hundred mission-critical shipboard systems, officials of the Navy's Pacific Fleet reported significant progress. But the service will keep working until late this year testing and fixing some systems. From Feb. 19 through March 6, the Pacific Fleet tested the USS Constellation's systems during an at-sea exercise off the Southern California coast. Officials reported only four systems of 150 failed in the Battle Group Systems Integration Test.

By Bill Murray, GCN
April 26, 1999

Lawyer doubts law will have effect on 2000 disputes

How much impact will the Year 2000 Information Readiness and Disclosure Act have on legal disputes between the federal government and contractors over year 2000-related systems failures? Very little, one Washington lawyer predicts. Although most civil proceedings are covered under PL 105-271, contract enforcement actions brought by a government agency are not, said Michael Aisenberg, who represented industry interests in drafting key provisions of the law.

By Florence Olsen, GCN
April 26, 1999

At lastan Alaska lawmaker submits a bill to regulate e-mail

Users who oppose Internet censorship and filtering are glad to make an exception when it comes to obnoxious e-mail. As a spam-hater myself, I welcome the Inbox Privacy Act sponsored by Sen. Frank Murkowski. The Alaska Republican's bill would force e-mail marketers to identify themselves by making it illegal to hide behind false return addresses. Junk e-mailers would have to honor consumer requests to be removed from lists, and they would have to submit to electronic

By GCN
April 26, 1999

FAA: Test indicates all systems are go

A successful year 2000 air traffic control test at the Denver International Airport this month convinced the Federal Aviation Administration that all of its systems will perform A-OK on Jan. 1. "The test went flawlessly," said Timothy Gilbert, technical director of FAA's Year 2000 Program Office. FAA on April 10 and 11 split air traffic systems at the Denver International Airport tower; the Denver Terminal Radar Control Center; the Colorado Springs, Colo., Terminal Radar Control Center; the

By Frank Tiboni, GCN
April 26, 1999

For Web browsers, stick with the Big 2

The Web has become indispensable to users searching the Internet for product prices or hunting down contacts on agency intranets. Despite marketing campaigns and the notoriety of antitrust actions, however, few people care which browser they use. I decided to find out whether the most recent versions of browsers had any great improvements over their predecessors. I looked at the two newest versions of browsers in widespread use and one alternative.

By John Breeden II, GCN
April 26, 1999

HUD uses schedule to standardize on Dell PCs

Housing and Urban Development Department users have been using Dell Computer Corp. PCs exclusively for three years now. HUD began buying Dell OptiPlex systems exclusively in 1996 and 1997. Users now are getting 450-MHz Pentium II systems with 128M of RAM, 10G hard drives and Microsoft Windows 95, said Randall Graham, director of HUD's Customer Service Division in the Office of Information Technology.

By Bill Murray, GCN
April 26, 1999

SSA sets mature example for Web sites

It's difficult to make a best-practices list for government Web sites because they all have different constituencies and different missions. Many agencies maintain one Web site for interacting with citizens, another for conducting agency business and a third for trading information with other government organizations. What's best practice for one type of site might not work for others. But certain successful strategies span multiple Web operations because they ensure easy use, logical navigation and timely data.

By Shawn McCarthy, GCN
April 26, 1999

Defense BPAs offer PCs at steep discount prices

Agencies are reaping discounts as high as 22 percent for PCs and peripherals through new blanket purchasing agreements. The Defense Logistics Agency in recent weeks set up four BPAs open to all federal agencies. The Defense Finance and Accounting Service signed two-year BPAs with four General Services Administration Information Technology Schedule vendors.

By Bill Murray, GCN
April 26, 1999

Agencies test a voice-activated telephone system

Bell Atlantic Federal enlisted federal users to test its voice-based dialing system that automates internal telephone directories of up to 20,000 listings. Connect@once can find names, place calls and manage voice mail by spoken commands. It uses speaker-independent voice recognition and natural language technology from Nuance Communications Corp. of Menlo Park, Calif.

By William Jackson, GCN
April 26, 1999

DOD reserves gateway to Iridium's global satellite service; other agencies mayfollow

The Defense Department is the largest single customer for Iridium LLC's financially troubled global satellite communications service. DOD has reserved one of the consortium's 12 ground gateways capable of serving up to 120,000 users and 1,000 simultaneous calls. The Army, Navy and Air Force are testing ways to integrate the Iridium satellite network into their communications plans.

By William Jackson, GCN
April 12, 1999

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